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CLCS Protocols 2025-2026

Organizers are invited to develop programming that responds to the Department’s CAARES initiatives (Committee for Antiracism, Accessibility, Respect, Equity and Social Justice).

The Department and the University encourage face to face events while asking organizers to keep in mind questions of accessibility and flexibility.

  • All events must be held on or before 11 April 2026 so that final bookkeeping can occur before the University deadline of 1 June 2026.
  • All events supported with event series funding must be scheduled, with contract letters returned and travel plans in place, on or before 5 December 2025, so that we know what funds we have available to allocate as part of the spring academic programming grant distribution.
  • Please include your project code on requests associated with payments or funding

Planning steps to host an event:

  1. Scheduling: If your event meets face-to-face, inquire about room availability before you make arrangements with your speaker, and reserve one of these rooms by contacting ENGLMEO@umd.edu. When you make your room request, especially for 2115, please indicate how you want the furniture in the room to be configured. If you are planning a virtual event, please confirm that your event does not conflict with something else being hosted within the department (see the calendar). Tawes 2115 and 2119E (conference room in MEO) now have cameras installed to facilitate hybrid events. We also have two portable Owl videoconferencing systems for limited use in other rooms (best for fewer than 10 participants).
  2. Event listing: Submit information for the Department Calendar to Karen Nelson and englweb@umd.edu via this form. In addition to the event date, time, title, and location or registration link, please provide details about the speaker and offer a brief description of the event. The information you submit will appear on the department’s website and will be used to generate publicity for monitors in the building and for social media. If you have questions, please email knelson@umd.edu
  3. Honoraria: Program organizers may use their budgets at their own discretion. CLCS currently recommends that for virtual events, the threshold for honoraria be a minimum of $250 and events be limited to one hour in length. For hybrid or face to face events, the recommended minimum threshold for honorarium per speaker is $500. Business office forms are linked here. Information about generating a contract and an overview of the payment process is available from the Business Office via this link. A template honorarium letter is available linked here. Instructions to supply to speakers for how they may create an account as a vendor are available here. Please note: Simplify the processing and ask the speaker to provide their LEGAL NAME, the one they'll use to complete federal forms, from the outset--the contract letter MUST match exactly the name they'll use, to include a middle name if that's how they sign themselves. Please also note: honoraria payments cannot be processed until the event has occurred; they typically take 4-6 weeks from that date to wend their way through the system.
  4. Travel: Information about Guest Travel is here. Please ask your guest to complete the guest travel form as soon as possible so that the business office may process the request and make the arrangements as needed. Please note that cancelling hotel reservations may not incur costs, but airline tickets are less likely to be refunded, and the Department does not reimburse travel expenses for a visitor who does not come to campus.
  5. COVID guidelines: The University’s current COVID guidelines are available here
  6. Accessibility: For Zoom events, please enable closed captioning. For hybrid events, please ask the speaker to provide an accessibility copy of the talk.
  7. Recording: For virtual webinar events, secure permission from the speakers prior to recording the event. Consult with CLCS to see whether light video editing is available. Budget for providing the closed captioning required by UMD for ADA compliance. For hybrid events, recording is complicated by a number of factors, including but not limited to audience permissions.
  8. Hybrid events via OWL: Reserve the OWL projectors with the Main English Office (englmeo@umd.edu). Set-up instructions are available here. You will want to generate a zoom link, possibly with zoom registration, for your event. Questions? Contact Karen Nelson (knelson@umd.edu) to figure out how to set up a hybrid event.
  9. Books: If your event budget includes an order for books, please submit a purchase request form (linked here) to the Business Office and cc knelson@umd.edu
  10. Catering: The Business Office provides a list of approved catering providers here. You can also work with Campus Catering / Dining Services; their Goodies to Go offerings are quite extensive, and Food Court Catering from Stamp is also a convenient way to provide food for events using departmental funding. Any campus orders need to be cleared through the Business Office; you should also contact Karen Nelson (knelson@umd.edu) so we can track the funding against your grant.
  11. Facilities: If you need tables or chairs beyond those available in the building, please contact Facilities to place an order. Be ready to provide the information about the room/building (Tawes is Building 141), and have your Worktag number available. If you need more information, please contact the Business Office or Karen Nelson (knelson@umd.edu)
  12. Land Acknowledgement: Available here.
  13. Enslavement Acknowledgement: Available here.